fixpafandomcom-20200216-history
4Rs Grant Application
AlphaLab Application Please complete all of the required fields below. Product/concept and Market 1.) Please provide a brief description (2-3 sentences) of your company and product/concept.* The proposed software development company, , creates applications that act as handshakes for the migration of data to wikis, from wikis and among wikis. :Applications come in many forms. ::* Applications can be robust, stand-alone double-click software packages that are deployed on tablet PCs with archived data. ::* Applets, helper apps, plug ins for existing tools and even menu-bar widgets are expected. ::* The applications and utilities of , given a larger world view, also represent outreach dealings. :::* The business framework includes outreach and educational opportunities within communities so as to drive awareness to wikis and teach of the benefits of richer interactions with wikis. :::* These, real-world handshakes promote wikis, tech-literacy, connected lifestyles and the goods and services. :The model for at start-up is to leverage the wiki as a central informational depot. ::* Data travels from content elsewhere through the to an appropriate wiki. ::* Data travels from one wiki to another wiki with the help of tools. ::* Data travels from the wiki to other products, such as books and hand-held devices. ::* Data from a wiki can also interact with other data sets, such as voter-registration information, giving people working on campaigns insights to citizens they'll encounter. ::* Data also arrives to the wiki with the aid of outreach efforts. Conferences, radio shows and lecture series can generate interactions that fuel additional materials for the wiki. 2.) Please provide a more detailed description of your company and product/concept. What is new or unique about it?* Wikis make the central theme for in the early phases. So, understanding the wiki is mission critical for an appreciation of this venture. Wikipedia.org is a flagship wiki. The 4Rs business model builds next to the phenomena of Wikipedia.org. The 4Rs efforts scaffold to Wikipedia.org in a number of ways. :Wikiapedia.org is the prime source for neutral point of view knowledge. and associated Fix Network can be the prime source on the web for content that includes all points of view. Wikipedia.org's domain for factual and without bias content fits well for as the hub and host of political views that are all inclusive. : See 4Rs+Wikia+Wikipedia 3.) What problem(s) is your product/concept going to solve? How do you know there is a problem(s)? (include market trends, data, etc.)* A serious problem in today's media landscape -- an abundance of one-sided discussions among fractionalized audiences -- is attacked with the efforts of . :The talking heads on the networks are political strategy operatives (clearly either "R" or "D" / "Red" or "Blue"). Pundits spew talking points. Their chatter, without coordination with others on the split screens, is seldom honest and open conversation. ::The passing of broadcaster and journalist, Tim Russert, created a loss of reasoned political insight and discourse. Skepticism among television audiences is high. The tools pulls together wide ranging sources within the same domain. helps participants in the public connect the dots as issue pages have links to all sorts of platform and opinion statements. Mainstream media shows, newspapers and networks are in a problematic rut with a polarized general public. Mainstream media sources brand themselves as either a conservative or liberal outlet. Even bloggers join certain camps and generate disdain for the "unwashed." This fractionalization of audiences to appeals of small segments of viewers has created huge difficulties in funding the business ventures for a lack of a base of customers. Furthermore, the gulfs in understanding among citizens and voters grows wider. helps pull every opinion and every individual into the same networked discussion. Various views are given their own space to unfold, but other opinions are always only a click and page away. With tools, recruitment to all citizens, voters and opinion-shapers is possible. For instance, the popular Red State blog would only promote to conservative target markets. However, promotes to all audiences can be fruitful. American citizens and voters are hungry for a "commonwealth of knowledge" that exists for everyone's benefit. :More are getting political insights now with Saturday Night Live and late-night comedians than ever before. SNL started a prime time Thursday show leading into the election. A 90-minute special only about political skits aired on October 25 and another will occur on election eve, November 3. :YouTube content about politics is growing. However, YouTube isn't with an robust organizational and cataloging system. and the tools of can resolve navigational constraints. The works to solve these problems of only preaching to the choir. ::The Fix Network is for everyone and accommodates all points of view. :: The site with sports and fitness is also an avenue to appeal to a more universal audience regardless of options and locations. Today's digital and media landscape has serious problems in sustaining a shared conversation. aims to "connect the dots." helps a sagging newspaper industry. helps content creators, especially bloggers, podcasters, a vbloggers. helps the overall community by sustaining conversations. helps with the recruitment of new candidates to public office. helps the voters, journalist, community activists. helps the other wiki flagships, such as Wikipedia.org, Wikinews, and Wikia.com. 4.) What one thing about the initial version will get early customers/users excited about it?* Value. Early customers, and customers from later periods, appreciate value. The value of a collection comes from its completeness. The greater body of work makes the offerings of project more complete, more thorough, more worthy, and more modern solutions. The volume of new content on the internet is staggering. This flood of data, issues, and ideas needs to be controlled, to a degree, with automation. Robots crafted for wikis and web spiders that are customized for certain, localized markets for a redeployement of webs of links, hold the highest hope for staying current. Wikis, a vital part of the internet, have been fully reliant upon volunteer editing. However, new projects just entering the marketplace today, can not attract the number of necessary volunteer editor hours at start-up that is necessary to build from scratch. The value of comes with its robust software development that produces a suite of tools and utilities to continually generate wiki content. The investment of human editing time can be greatly reduced. And, the boundaries of the wiki's pages and mission can be greatly appreciated form those who have devoted hours and efforts to generate existing content. So, the value of what already exists is appreciated with the as a later arrival. 5.) Who do you envision using your product?* Media creators * Newspaper companies ** Post-Gazette ** City Paper ** South Pittsburgh Reporter * TV News ** KDKA TV ** WTAT TV ** PCN TV * Radio stations and shows ** KDKA Radio's Marty Griffin show ** KQV ** * Syndicated radio talk shows ** Free Talk Live ** NPR's All Things Considered * Bloggers ** PghComet.blogspot.com ** Mark Rauterkus & Running Mates * Podcasters ** * Video Podcasters ** Reason TV ** Larry Lessig * Educational outlets and School Districts ** Pittsburgh Public Schools ** Catholic Schools ** Private Schools ** Language teachers * Our wiki and other wiki owners ** Community leaders * Political folks ** Informed voters ** Want-a-be candidates ** candidates, ** elected officials, ** journalists * Economic Development folks *** South Side Local Development Corporation * Business *** Letter to Editor authors *** Letter to Editor readers * Consumers ** Researchers of neighborhoods for business investments ** Researchers of neighborhoods for home and life investments Advertisers * Since Wikia.com has advertising content, advertisers will be using the products too. 6.) Who are your potential competitors? Why are you better than them?* is sure to have competitors when seeking to obtain venture capital investments. : will have to compete to get the attention and access investors for more limited funding to help fuel future growth. In the marketplace, because of the open-source nature of the content on the wikis, we'll face competitors with aims of producing closed, proprietary content. So, copyright publishers could be deemed a potential competitor. : An encyclopedia company, (i.e., Britanica), or an Almanac publisher (Farmers' Almanack) could be a competitive threat if it was seeking to catalog opinions from all range of perspectives. : NBC Sports, a television network with a contractual exclusive rights in specific markets to events, such as the 2010 Olympics, could be a potential competitor to w:c:AforAthlete. Google would be an possible competitor: * Google sells advertising. The wiki pages from has advertising too. * Google would be a possible competitor for search engine utilization. Google has its own search and Wikia.com has its own search too. * Google could be a competitor for the people who surf the internet. Google is a great source for finding information on the web. As a person researches an issue, that person could go to Google to find information. ** Other search engine providers could be called competitors too: *** Yahoo, AskJeeves, etc. 7.) How do you plan to make money from your product and when do you anticipate generating revenue?* * Subscriptions * Newspaper investors * Value added special sales ** Contract with Lenovo for the 2012 Olympics * Retail sales of products ** Buy a book / CD / DVD, A for Athlete * Bulk sales promotions * Consulting ** Leagues ** Private label wikis *** Industry groups, etc. Technology 8.) Describe the system architecture and the toolsets you plan on using to develop the product (e.g. operating environments, languages, databases, etc.).* Text dominates with . : The wiki framework is open source. All the code is available for review so one core element of the technology puzzle is clearly evident and visible without the need to reverse engineer. : Text also drives a large part of the content that is created and posted elsewhere. The tools of , at a simple level, simply deploys cut-and-paste to migrate content and pointers (URLs that are also text chunks) from newspapers, blogs and other wikis to the Fix Network. : Scripts and software tools, both open source and not, that handle text can be deployed. :: RunRev :: PERL :: OpenOffice.org macros 9.) What is your anticipated timeline for developing your product during the five month program (include prototype, alpha, or limited beta test, if applicable)? Can you describe your plans for gathering user feedback during AlphaLab? Do you own the rights to your technology?* 10.) What do you anticipate to be the most challenging technical hurdle(s)?* Pulling large data chunks from the wikis onto localized storage containers will be a challenge with time and space. : The localized storage containers are sure to change throughout time. :: Upgrades of tech devices are sure to keep the production folks nimble. Burning data to a CD, DVD, Blue-Ray Disk, USB Drive, Kindle ebook (from Amazon), laptop, tablet, iPod, hand-held iPhone or new as of October 2008, Google Phone, is going to be present moving targets. What will be available in London at the time of the 2012 Olympics for our Field Guide to the 2012 Olympics is hard to predict. : The time elements with data is sure to present a challenge. Getting updates from the wikis to the localized storage containers is going present a challenge. :: The content that is deployed at the start of the Olympics is going to need fresh layers of news to reside with archived content. ::: When watching the Olympic marathon at the mile 20 mark, it would be great to have the field guide report the 10-mile split times, in real time. The combination of twitter, news feeds, real-time updates and first hand accounts will need to merge and freshen existing data hosted externally from the network / internet. The most challenging hurdles for are not expected to be technical ones. Rather, the most serious challenges might prove to be legal challenges and the associated turf wars that could spawn from content ownership and re-use of factual data. : NBC has the television rights for broadcasting Olympic competitions in North America. The video we obtain through our sources could be uploaded to field guides draw the attention of NBC lawyers. Team 11.) List all of the team members' names, education, work experience, and accomplishments. Please note if your team has previous history working together and describe the project/work context. Upload team resumes here and save the files in the following format: Last Name_First Name _ Resume.doc or .pdf (Example: Smith_Mary_ Resume.pdf).* File limited to .zip, .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, .xlsx, .pdf 12.) Please describe each team member’s expected role during AlphaLab and how their background is applicable. What other commitments (e.g. employment, consulting, school/education, etc.) do the founders have during the duration of the program, if any? Please provide as much detail as possible, including timing/hours of said commitments. 13.) Will every member of the team have employment authorization to work and/or manage the new company should it be selected into the AlphaLab program? If no, please explain. If yes, what is the form of employment authorization? (please provide details for each team member, i.e., US citizen, permanent resident, employment authorization, H-1B status, etc.) Current Status 14.) Describe the progress you have made to date on your product, including the stage of product development (e.g. lines of code, functionality, built prototype) and any interaction with potential customers/users.* Two wikis, FixPA (political) and A for Athlete, (sports) moved to Wikia.com in May 2008. :As of October 2008, both wikis have more than 1,000 pages of content. 15.) What else would you like us to know about you and your company? Please include relevant references or links or upload any additional documents here and save the files in the following format: Last Name_First Name_Type of Supplemental Material.doc or pdf or ppt or xls (Example: Smith_Mary_ Executive Summary.doc). Category:4Rs